Joker (2019 film)  

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Joker is a 2019 American psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver. The film, based on DC Comics characters, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is intended to launch DC Black, a series of DC-based standalone films. The film, which acts as an origin story for the Joker, is set in 1981 and follows Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City. Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy appear in supporting roles.

Phillips conceived Joker in 2016 and wrote the script with Silver throughout 2017. The two were inspired by 1970s character studies and the works of Martin Scorsese (who was initially attached to the project as a producer); the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) served as the basis for the film's premise, but Phillips and Silver otherwise did not look to specific comics for inspiration. Phoenix became attached to the project in February 2018 and was cast that July, while the majority of the cast signed on by August. Principal photography lasted from September to December 2018 and took place in New York City, Jersey City, and Newark. Joker was the first live-action Batman franchise film to receive an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, due to its violent and disturbing content.

Joker premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2019, where it won the Golden Lion, the festival's highest prize. It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on October 4, 2019. The film received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for Phoenix's performance.

Plot

In 1981, party clown Arthur Fleck lives with his mother, Penny, in Gotham City. Gotham is rife with crime and unemployment, leaving segments of the population disenfranchised and impoverished. Arthur suffers from a neurological disorder that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times and depends on a social services worker for medication. After a gang attacks him in an alley, Arthur's co-worker, Randall, lends him a gun. Arthur invites his neighbor, single mother Sophie, to his stand-up comedy show, and they begin dating.

While entertaining at a children's hospital, Arthur's gun falls out of his pocket. Arthur is fired and Randall lies that Arthur bought the gun himself. On the subway, still in his clown makeup, Arthur is beaten by three drunken Wayne Enterprises businessmen; he shoots two in self-defense and executes the third. The murders are condemned by billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, who labels those envious of more successful people as "clowns". Demonstrations against Gotham's rich begin, with protesters donning clown masks in Arthur's image. Funding cuts shutter the social service program, leaving Arthur without medication.

Arthur's comedy show goes poorly; he laughs uncontrollably and has difficulty delivering his jokes. Talk show host Murray Franklin mocks Arthur by showing clips from the routine on his show. Arthur intercepts a letter written by Penny to Thomas, alleging that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth. At Wayne Manor, Arthur talks to Thomas' young son, Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with butler Alfred Pennyworth. Following a visit from two Gotham City Police Department detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny suffers a stroke and is hospitalized.

At a public event, Arthur confronts Thomas, who tells him that Penny is delusional. In denial, Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and steals Penny's case file; the file says Penny adopted Arthur as a baby and allowed her abusive boyfriend to harm them both. Penny alleged that Thomas used his influence to fabricate the adoption and commit her to the asylum to hide their affair. Distraught, Arthur goes to the hospital and kills Penny. He enters Sophie's apartment unannounced. Frightened, Sophie tells him to leave; their previous encounters are revealed to have been Arthur's delusions.

Arthur is invited to appear on Murray's show due to the unexpected popularity of his routine clips. As he prepares, he is visited by his former co-workers Gary and Randall. Arthur murders Randall but leaves Gary unharmed for treating Arthur well in the past. En route to the studio, Arthur is pursued by the two detectives onto a train filled with clown protesters. One accidentally shoots a protester and incites a riot while Arthur escapes in the chaos.

Before the show goes live, Arthur requests that Murray introduce him as Joker, a reference to Murray's previous mockery. Arthur walks out to a warm reception, but begins telling morbid jokes, admits that he killed the men on the train, and rants about how society abandons the disenfranchised and how Murray mocked him. Arthur kills Murray live on television and is arrested as riots break out across Gotham; one rioter corners the Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha, sparing Bruce.

Rioters in an ambulance crash into the police car carrying Arthur and free him. He dances to the cheers of the crowd and notices that he is bleeding from his mouth; he uses his own blood to paint a smile on his face.

In an interview at Arkham, Arthur laughs to himself and tells his psychiatrist she would not understand the joke. He then runs from the orderlies, leaving a trail of bloodied footprints.

Social commentary

Joker deals with the themes of mental illness and its effects. Its depiction of the Joker has been described as reminiscent of those who commit mass shootings in the United States as well as members of the online incel community. Vejvoda, Hammond, and The Guardian 's Christina Newland interpreted the film as a cautionary tale—society's ignorance of those who are less fortunate will create a person like the Joker. Stephen Kent, writing for The Washington Examiner, described Arthur Fleck as blending shared aspects of mass shooters, and interpreted its message as a reminder that society is riddled with men like the Joker. Writing in People's World, Chauncey K. Robinson said the film "walks a fine line between exploration and validation" of Joker's character, and is "ultimately an in-your-face examination of a broken system that creates its own monsters."

Some writers have expressed concern that Joker 's sympathetic portrayal of a homicidal maniac could inspire real-world violence. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair found the film was too sympathetic towards "white men who commit heinous crimes;" and that the social-politics ideologies represented in the film are "evils that are far more easily identifiable" to people "who shoot up schools and concerts and churches, who gun down the women and men they covet and envy, who let loose some spirit of anarchic animus upon the world—there's almost a woebegone mythos placed on them in the search for answers." Jim Geraghty of National Review wrote he was "worried that a certain segment of America's angry, paranoid, emotionally unstable young men will watch Joaquin Phoenix descending into madness and a desire to get back at society by hurting as many people as possible and exclaim, 'finally, somebody understands me!'"

See also

• Origin story
• Every song heard in 'The Joker' (2019)